The Trump Administration’s False 6% Federal Workforce Claim Won’t Go Away
MAGA makes up bullshit stories and the mainstream media spreads it all around
As Donald Trump’s administration pushes to slash the federal workforce, a wildly inaccurate statistic keeps resurfacing: the claim that only 6% of federal employees work full-time in their offices.
It’s an astoundingly low number (for a real reason), especially as corporations push for full office returns—but it’s completely false. The figure first appeared in a non-scientific online survey but was quickly amplified by Trump allies, media outlets, and even the White House. Despite repeated debunking by fact-checkers, including PolitiFact labeling it "pants on fire" false, the myth continues to fuel attacks on government workers.
The statistic gained traction in December 2024 when Sen. Joni Ernst cited it in a report titled “Out of Office: Bureaucrats on the Beach and in Bubble Baths but Not in Office Buildings.”
The New York Post, Sean Hannity, and even Elon Musk helped spread the claim, with Musk falsely asserting that “if you exclude security guards & maintenance personnel, the number of government workers who show up in person and do 40 hours of work a week is closer to 1%! Almost no one.”
However, an Office of Management and Budget study from August 2024 showed that 54% of federal employees were required to work in-person daily, with only 10% working fully remote—a stark contrast to the misleading 6% figure.
Even after Federal News Network, the source of the original flawed survey, issued a correction, Trump’s White House continued citing the 6% number.
On January 20, 2025, the administration falsely stated, “The President will also return federal workers to work, as only 6% of employees currently work in person.”
Trump himself echoed this in a Miami speech, saying, “You can’t work at home. They’re not working. They’re playing tennis, they’re playing golf, or they have other jobs.”
Sounds an awful lot like what Trump does every damned day: Wake up at 11am, watch Fake News, makes a few shitposts on “Troth Sensual,” takes a couple massive dumps after a smorgasborg of “hamberders” and Diet Cokes, and then he falls asleep.
Oh, and he golfs. A lot. Trump golfed nine of his first 30 days in office.
Despite overwhelming evidence refuting the claim, the portrayal of federal workers as lazy remains central to Trump’s agenda to gut the government.
Source: ProPublica